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Companies try to map the entire customer journey with all sorts of attribution models and tools that cost thousands of your revenue dollars.
The problem is simple: How to know for sure where to invest next quarter, year and which marketing programs are the best.
The solution is also simple: You focus on what works by tracking the important KPIs and scrutinising them based on where and how they were generated.
This is a normal dashboard that is supposedly very interesting to execs.
Some questions they ask:
- How many MQLs did we get this week?
- Why is this week worse than previous?
- What was done to combat this?
- Why can't we get more MQLs if we increased the budget?
People that know about your business and are making an effort to become an MQL (lead. requested demo, requested to speak to sales etc)
People that besides seeing your ad this week, might decide to convert next week, so your efforts go unnoticed.
Not all pipeline is created equally.
An MQL that comes from your lead generation campaigns ('download our free whitepaper') on LinkedIn
is not the same as an MQL that comes from your 'book a demo' form on your website.
Intent matters
Instead of looking at MQL numbers each week.
Filter the MQL source and see how they progress in your pipeline.
Two things we will notice:
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Evaluate marketing efforts based on conversion source
Take Momentum for example.
While the cold outbound was strong, the reporting only showed numbers of MQLs generated and more budget was poured into what generated the most MQLs.
But as we theorised above, and as we discovered in this case, not all MQLs are created equally, therefore investing in marketing campaigns that are bringing you the most amount of MQLs is not the wisest choice.
B2B Software buyers do not buy based on first time impulse
A SaaS solution could cost thousands a year, and for small businesses owners with no technical background, the benefits are not introduced early on so they make an informed decision.
Momentum was trying to capture the demand that was already out there for the AI solution, without realising that a B2B buying journey is not only ad click + website visit + demo booked.
It is much more complex than that.
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Lesson; People buy everywhere, and they consider all options
Because they are.
There should be a clear positioning inside the company that everyone works for the same goal, getting more efficient revenue through the pipeline.
Dashboards like:
Are not helping Rev Ops make decisions and properly optimize marketing budgets.
Investments are hard to make and the main goal is lost.
Instead, help Rev Ops teams make better decisions by showing them:
Allow Rev Ops to make faster decisions regarding marketing investments and budget allocations
It might seem impossible to track efforts from Marketing Teams and it might seem like Sales Teams are the only
drivers of buying decisions.
That could not be further from the truth.
In reality, we should look at these teams differently but they should not be competing with each other.
Marketing teams' role is to create demand, improve buying journey and communicate with sales to decide which marketing program is bringing them the most qualified leads.
Sales Teams should be relieved from the constant pressure of performing regarding the amount of bad leads they get, and marketing teams should be given credit for making buying process easy for sales.
Track efforts based on efficiency, the whole Go-To-Market teams' efficiency, not one department versus the other.
Not all MQLs (leads) are created equally and we should filter to understand what brings the most value, not the highest quantity
B2B buying journey is not linear, users chose to talk to their peers, go on forums, see your ad about benefits online, search on Google etc, before making a decision. Help them in that journey, don't try to close them without giving them a chance to understand and decide.
Rev Ops Teams should be given clear visibility on what works best, whats most efficient compared to new revenue and it will become very easy for them to optimise the whole GTM budget.
Sales teams should not be competing with Marketing teams. It is not a department war, it should be a unified Go-To-Market team where communication is key and the goal remains the same.
It is easy to drift away from the main goal, and that is why looking at KPIs the right way helps teams realise that it is not important to map the whole B2B buying journey, but it is important to look at the right intent data when it comes. Your customers will tell you how they buy, if you are there to listen
